When a skater finds an obstacle that works well with their style, speed and trick of choice, it can quickly turn into their dream spot. Dutch skate spots are known to be rough and hard to manoeuvre, so it’s only on rare occasions that a skater truly connects with a spot. I’ve decided to do some digging and find out where everyone likes to skate, outside of the designated skatepark grounds. Dutch-based skaters, whether native or simply living in the country, shared their personal stories. This column offers a sneak peek of Dutch street spots, what they’re like, why they’re great, and how they’re being skated, thanks to responses given by some of the country’s finest street skaters.

Tjerk Oosting

[This spot is made up of one ledge with two wall sides, so it’s technically a wall-ledge-wall spot - Lea] 

I had a lot of video parts with a trick on this obstacle in it. I did a wallie 5050 backside flip, wallie back 5050 frontside flip, front nosegrind, back nosegrind shove it, switch back 5050 front bigspin, and a wallie nollie 180 fakie nosegrind 180. My dream trick is to do a wallie back blunt backside flip out. “Why this one?” Because it’s a spot that you don’t see a lot and it’s fun to figure out new tricks to do there.

Pascale Numan

I don’t really have a dream [favourite] spot. I feel like whenever we skate street with my crew and we have a spot in mind, we don’t even end up at that spot but just keep on running into spots.

JW van Bremen

My favourite skate spot is the Rietland park tram stop in Amsterdam East, near the entrance of the Piet-Hein Tunnel. The spot consists of a pretty smooth tiled floor, plenty of space, small flat gaps and a high ledge. It’s a good spot for filming lines or skating later at night because there is some lighting too. Though the ledge can be pretty rough for grinds (lots of wax needed), it slides very well. Personally, I’ve done many lines at Rietland park and the hardest single trick I’ve done there is probably a kickflip back-tail or kickflip backside 5-O (it was actually in a line). A dream trick of mine to land there is probably a kickflip back-tail to fakie!

Jersey Nelom

My favourite spot is a gap over a trash can underneath the  Bijlmer Arena station. It’s one of my favourite spots because it’s challenging to skate and under a train station, so if we are lucky it’s dry most of the time. The last tricks I did over it were backside heelflip and backside flip. It would be sick if I ever get a nollie tre-flip over that thing but there is still a lot of work to do!

King van den Ban

To be honest, some of the best spots are hidden in random places so there’s a lot of spots still unknown. But, the best spots are probably in Rotterdam or Arnhem. I really like Rembrandtplein here in Amsterdam and Zuid has some of the best spots as an area. It’s close to Amstelveen as well which has more hidden spots. In the Dutch streets you have to get creative often. In Arnhem the train station already has some of the best spots in the Netherlands. I saw a lot of sick spots in the Velp video from Public, with Emile, Wisse and the Annem boys. Roffa has the most spots for sure, behind every corner there’s something to skate.

Top 3 spots 

1. Rembrandtplein [I asked King which obstacle he likes the most there, it’s the ledges]
2. Hotel New York ledges & food hall Rotterdam
3. Utrecht Centraal ledges 

Honourable mention: Grafisch Lyceum Rotterdam

Leah Joah

My favourite skate spot (located in Utrecht Science Park aka Uithof) consists of various elements:

1. Orange pool, a bank, and a rail  
2. Different sized ledges 
3. Three stair

Next to the orange pool, there are stairs where one can stand while filming, creating a sick frame where the bowl as a whole can be viewed. The different obstacles are within 300 metres from each other making it suitable for an all-round sesh. I did a heel flip to fakie on the bank in the orange pool and my dream trick is to 50-50 grind the whole stair in the orange pool. :)

Koye Taylor

I don’t think I have a favourite spot, because all spots suck in their own way which is what makes street spots beautiful. But, I do really enjoy skating that curved ledge in Amsterdam Zuid. The one that is next to the VU and the football field. Sliding or grinding through that curve is one of the coolest feelings I’ve felt on a skateboard. For my welcome to Skatestore part, I did a front nose shuv there, and I recently filmed another trick there that I was thinking about for a while with Dylan. Hopefully, you guys get to see it soon.

Wikke Ren Olivier

I don’t particularly have an all-time favourite skate spot at the moment, but one spot I saw today and think is really nice is the ledges in front of the UvA business school. There are 4 blocks pretty close to each other. You could do these ledge combinations without pushing in between. I once did a front-tail to back-tail which felt really good. It is pretty fucking close to water though, so there is a higher chance of your board falling in the canal. A dream trick I would love to do there, I actually came up with it today, is a frontside nose grind nollie 180 out first and then a half cab nose grind nollie 180 out. If I’ll land it I’ll probably look like a ballet dancer, haha.

Christina Steens

My favourite spot in the Netherlands is the Markthal in Rotterdam. There’s all kinds of stairs around it, ranging from a 1-stair to a 7-stair. I always like the spot because you can do anything, skate the small stair when warming up and go bigger eventually. I skated a lot there during the covid days when the skate park was closed. I learned a lot there, first 180 off stairs, first kickflip down, varial flip, switch 180, first tre-flip, so there’s a lot of nice memories. After learning them on the small stairs I was able to do them on bigger stairs each time. My dream trick to do would be a frontside flip or a bigspin flip. It would be sick to do them down stairs, like the Markthal. Of course, my first ollie down stairs was at that spot too.

Tomas Oliver

My favourite spot is the Courthouse Amsterdam because the flatground is perfect for skating and you have ledges everywhere. I did a line ending with a back lip on one of the ledges. My dream trick is slappy noseslide 270 on the high ledge to the gap.

Preference patterns for nerds:

2/10 skaters mentioned smooth ground 
2/10 skaters mentioned gaps: trash gaps, flat gaps
2/10 skaters mentioned stairs
7/10 spots are in Amsterdam (selection bias or just facts?) 

Based on the results, skateboarders in the Netherlands love skating ledges

6/10 skaters mentioned ledges: 

• Curved ledges
• Spots with multiple ledges
• Ledges built around walls
• Different-sized ledges

Common spot obstacles in the Netherlands

- Beware of rough ground

• Keep your board away from the canals
• Always check the forecast. That spot might not be dry
• “All spots suck in their own way” - Koye Taylor 
• Don’t forget the wax
• “You need to be creative to skate Dutch street spots” - King van den Ban